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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27609745">Be Careful What a Dream May Bring</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/You_Are_Constance/pseuds/You_Are_Constance'>You_Are_Constance</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Anastasia - Flaherty/Ahrens/McNally</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>(vlad voice), F/M, M/M, Multi, a lot of characters don't come in until muuuuch later, calm down, everyone is a mess but that's already canon, gleb what are you doing, not you too dimitri!!!!!, the summary is terrible bc i can't summary, violence but not in detail</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 02:14:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>17,591</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27609745</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/You_Are_Constance/pseuds/You_Are_Constance</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Anya and Dimitri finally decide to return for a quick trip back to Russia, just to visit their homeland once more before leaving all of that behind them.</p><p>Gleb, meanwhile, pays for his decision to let Anya go.</p><p>When Anya suffers from her first nightmare in a very long time, she can't determine how much of it is her own fears and how much is real. </p><p>Only time will tell.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anya | Anastasia Romanov/Gleb Vaganov, Dimitri | Dmitry/Anya | Anastasia Romanov (Anastasia 1997 &amp; Broadway), Dimitri | Dmitry/Anya | Anastasia Romanov/Gleb Vaganov, Dimitri | Dmitry/Gleb Vaganov</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is my first time writing for this ship (or this fandom in general) so I hope it's alright! (no chapter titles bc I'm too tired)</p><p>as usual, I won't publish any comments that swear, so be aware of that</p><p>idk how often I'll update. 2-3 times a week maybe????</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It had been a very long time since Anya and Dimitri had departed from Paris. What a thrilling adventure the past few years had been.</p><p>Anya hadn't ever felt more alive than she did while with Dimitri, traveling, and exploring. The rest of the world truly had many things to offer. She couldn't imagine making a different choice. She couldn't imagine what her life would have been if she had stayed. If she had lost Dimitri. She couldn't imagine actually becoming the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanov, but she did dearly miss her Nana. Anya had only barely gotten the chance to know her again, less than a day, even, before she had gone away. She missed  Vlad. She missed everyone that she had come to love, but even as bitter as the feeling of missing them was, there was still a bit of sweetness to it. Anya knew there were still out there, with fond memories of her, and Anya had her fond memories of them.  It was so... good, to have such memories. Yes, they had separated, likely forever, but it wasn't painful. At least, not like it could have been.</p><p>And she had Dimitri. She had someone. She wasn't alone, and she knew she would never be alone again.</p><p>Every once in a while, Anya found herself longing for Russia. She wanted to return, wanted to see what had become of it since she left, but she knew there would still be danger there. Danger, if she was recognized. She had heard rumors, rumors that it had become better, but she didn't know if she could trust there them. Rumors were just rumors.</p><p>Although, some rumors were certainly true, as she had found.</p><p>Anya sat in the window of the room that she and Dimitri were staying in, the window open. Her legs hung off the seat, her skirt once in a while picking up a bit of the breeze and floating upward before falling slowly back down, her strawberry-blonde hair catching the wind much more consistently.</p><p>The city they were staying in was certainly beautiful. There were so many colors, so much light, but it wasn't Russia.</p><p>She missed Russia.</p><p>"What's the matter?" Dimitri said as he came into the room to see her gazing out at the skyline.</p><p>"Nothing, Dimitri," she replied automatically, without turning her head to look at him.</p><p>"Oh, don't think I can't see when something's wrong," he continued, his voice growing slightly louder as he came closer. He sat down beside her, slightly more dangerously with one leg hanging out of the open window. They were quite a few stories up.</p><p>Anya turned her head to look at him.</p><p>"So what is it?" he baited.</p><p>Anya rolled her eyes and smiled slightly. "You really are quite a pain, Dima." She purposefully used the nickname reserved for taunting him.</p><p>"Am I the pain, truly?"</p><p>Anya looked back out at the sky, trying but ultimately failing to keep her smile from expanding.</p><p>"But in all seriousness," Dimitri's tone turned softer. "Something is wrong, I can tell. What's bothering you?"</p><p>Anya let out a breath slow breath as she tried to find the right words.</p><p>"I... I'm not entirely sure... but I feel like something is missing. I miss Russia, I think. That's not new, though. I've missed it since we first left."</p><p>"It's our homeland, Anya, of course we're going to miss it," Dimitri reminded her. "Russia is a part of us, but we've left that behind us. We've moved on. We can't just live in the past, Anya, no matter how appealing it may be."</p><p>"But it's not appealing," she said. "I don't want to live in the past. I want... something different than that. I want to live in the now, but I want it to be in Russia. I wish... I wish I could even go back, just once, just to see what has become of it."</p><p>Dimitri went quiet. Anya looked back up at him when he didn't respond for a few seconds.  "Well," he finally resumed. "Why don't we?"</p><p>"What?"</p><p>"Why don't we go back to Russia? Just for a little while."</p><p>"But, it's dangerous. We've always said it's too dangerous."</p><p>"Weren't you the one who was practically begging to go just a minute ago? Besides, we're not just going to go right now. We'll plan it out. We'll find a way to do it safely, to make sure that no one discovers who we are."</p><p>"Can we do that? Really?"</p><p>"Didn't I just say we could?"</p><p>"Well, let's get started then!" She hopped up from the window seat, knocking Dimitri off balance and very nearly causing him to fall out of the window, but she managed to catch his arm on time.</p><p>"Sorry!" she squeaked.</p><p>"Maybe I just shouldn't sit half-way out the window from now on."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>wow this week took forever but here I am!!!!!</p><p>So fun story<br/>when I posted the first chapter, I thought to myself that I'll post a chapter every Wednesday and Saturday, so I posted it. Then I was reminded that it was Wednesday now, and I had posted it on Tuesday, not Wednesday<br/>but screw days the only ones that matter are yesterday, today, and tomorrow</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They started to plan their trip to Russia. It would take time and money to acquire the correct papers and passports, and possibly even longer to make them "wrong." They would have to use fake names while there, and possibly for a while before. Different fake names than the ones they'd been going by up to this point. Maybe they hadn't been needing to hide their true selves all this time, but it wasn't worth the risk.</p><p>There was risk to everything they did, and that was likely how it was going to be for a very long time.  Maybe it wasn't the best way to live, but it was the only option they had at the moment.</p><p>Every precaution they took was worth it. Even if it meant taking another year before they could get to Russia, it would all be worth it.</p><p>Everything would be worth it once she could walk the streets of St. Petersburg again. </p><p>That night, Anya woke from a nightmare. She used to have them often, nightly, even, but since she had been with Dimitri, they had stopped. This was the first one since they had left Paris.</p><p>The nightmares used to be different. Snippets of her past that she couldn't remember. This, though, this was something she did remember, at least, parts of it were.</p><p>It was that one night, after the ballet, and after she had reunited with her Nana. When Gleb found her and locked them in that room. He had orders. Orders to find her and kill her if she really was the Grand Duchess Anastasia. If she wasn't, he would have taken her back to Russia. He hadn't believed her when she said she was exactly who she said she was. He didn't believe until he had tried to obey his orders. He had tried to kill her.</p><p>He hadn't been able to, back then, and he finally realized the truth.</p><p>She never saw him again after that.</p><p>Her nightmare was not an accurate account of what had actually happened that night.  No, it was what could have happened. It was what was supposed to happen, even much longer ago, according to history.</p><p>It was what would have happened if Gleb had been able to pull the trigger.</p><p>Most of it had passed before her eyes too quickly that she couldn't process, and much of it had slipped away the moment that she woke up screaming, but she remembered the pain. She remembered the regret.</p><p>She remembered enough. </p><p>When she woke up, or moments after, she was already in Dimitri's arms. She held on tightly to his arm as if he were the only thing keeping her alive, which at this point, he might be. Tears streamed down her face as she tried to control her breathing.</p><p>"Woah, shh, you're safe now," Dimitri whispered. "You're safe." She closed her eyes, wanting to believe him, but the dream, it was had been so vivid, so real.</p><p>But it wasn't real. She was here now. Gleb hadn't pulled the trigger. She was here.</p><p>She eventually managed to slow her breathing to a nearly normal rate, but she didn't let go of Dimitri's arm.  She couldn't bring herself to do that, not yet.</p><p>Dimitri didn't ask her about the dream, but she started telling him about it anyway.</p><p>She had never told anyone, not even Dimitri, about her run-in with Gleb that night. Now she finally was.</p><p>"It was that one night, after the ballet," she whispered. "After right before I would have been announced as Anastasia. It... it was Gleb. He was there, that night, with orders to kill..." She heard Dimitri suck in a sharp breath. "He couldn't do it, he couldn't kill me, so he left. But.. but I dreamt that he could. I dreamt that he did his job and... and that he..."</p><p>"Shh," Dimitri urged. "He didn't. You are right here, and you are safe. You're safe, Anya."</p><p>"Safe..." she echoed. It felt good to be safe.</p><p>Dimitri was right. Gleb didn't obey his orders, and she was safe.</p><p>But there was still something about that dream that seemed true, something about the pain. It was too vivid to not be real.</p><p>But it wasn’t real. It wasn’t. She had to keep telling herself that until she believed it.</p><p>She had to.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After that one night in Paris, Gleb Vaganov could never have guessed what his life would become.</p><p>He should have known that his actions would have consequences; actions always do. He should have known that disobeying orders would leave him stripped of his power and stripped of respect.</p><p>But even after all that, everything he had been through because of his actions, he did not regret them. He did not regret letting the Grand Duchess live, or letting Anya go free.</p><p>Perhaps the only thing he regretted was not running with her.</p><p>So now here he was, back in his beloved Leningrad, the land that he had worked so hard to restore to the greatness it should have been all along, and it had turned its back on him.</p><p>Since Gleb returned from Paris alone, after failing his duties to either bring Anya back or to kill her, and letting his father down, his rank as Deputy Commissioner had been stripped from him and he was left to work a job that he used to command.</p><p>It wasn’t terrible, though. A job was a job. He was now starting to truly understand what it was like for the people he saw gossiping in the streets. He was starting to understand what it was like for Anya, and even then, he was privileged compared to her and many of them. At least he never had to worry about finding a job. He’d just been degraded, but it was still a job.</p><p>If it was a lesson that he was being taught, seeing what it was like for people below him, he was certainly learning.</p><p>Gleb knew that wasn’t the lesson he was being taught. He certainly was being taught a lesson, but that was not it.</p><p>If he’d learned anything, it was that all he’d done for Russia wasn’t valued like he thought it had been. His superiors cared only for obedience, not for thinking, which he had done. He’d thought for himself, which wasn’t appreciated. Now he had to work in order to get back to where he was.</p><p>He did so without complaint. He went about every duty he had in his new position—though it wasn’t completely ‘new’ anymore. He was certain that even after what he’d done, he was still the hardest worker there.</p><p>He was focused and direct, an unstoppable force, never distracted.</p><p>Or, almost never.</p><p>Only when Gleb went about his duties in the streets, when he would look around and watch the people hurry by. Sometimes, he’d see a pretty little street sweeper and be reminded of that one long ago. He’d think, for a moment, that somehow, Anya had returned.</p><p>Then he came back to his senses. Anya was far away, as she should be. She was no longer in danger, and that was what mattered.</p><p>As long as Anya stayed far away from Russia, she would be safe.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>why does half a week feel like forever</p><p>but anyway yay now we get some gleb!!!!!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>ha this chapter feels like i'm posting it too soon but that's what being off school for half the week does to ya</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Anya and Dimitri were now well on their way to arranging their trip to Russia. It had been a long time since the idea was first proposed. Now they were close. They had managed to acquire papers and were now working to get tickets. They were close.</p><p>She hadn’t had another nightmare since that last one, but she had been having trouble sleeping. It wasn’t nightmares, at least not fully, but she couldn’t fall asleep, and when she did, she didn’t often stay asleep.</p><p>It seemed the only place she could feel safe and comfortable was in Dimitri's arms. And even then, sometimes it wasn't enough.</p><p>She could see just how worried Dimitri was about her, but every time he tried to bring it up, she came up with something else to talk about.  She avoided the topic of herself whenever possible, and up to this point, it had always been possible.</p><p>"Anya, you can't keep avoiding this," Dimitri insisted. "Something is wrong, really wrong. We have to talk about this."</p><p>Anya desperately searched her mind for some kind of excuse, something to turn the discussion away from her, but came up empty.</p><p>"You can tell me," Dimitri insisted. "You can talk to me."</p><p>She knew she could. She'd always been able to, before that nightmare. Something changed that one night. She wasn't quite sure what.</p><p>"Anya, please, tell me what's wrong."</p><p>She let out a long breath. "I know that dream wasn't real..." she mumbled, "but it still feels real. I feel like it actually happened, but that's impossible. I know it doesn't make sense, but something seems so real about it."</p><p>Dimitri nodded, not speaking at first.</p><p>"I know I sound crazy—"</p><p>"If you think you sound crazy now, you obviously haven't heard yourself before," he said with a smirk.</p><p>"Oh, you're one to talk, Dima." She sat down beside him on the edge of the bed.</p><p>"You want to go there, Grand Duchess?"</p><p>She rolled her eyes at him. </p><p>"But in all seriousness, you don't sound crazy at all. You feel something is wrong, I trust that. I trust you when you say that something is wrong. "</p><p>"You do?"</p><p>"Why wouldn't I? You haven't given me a single reason not to trust you."</p><p>"But... it doesn't make any sense."</p><p>"And does it have to?  Does everything any of us do have to make sense?"</p><p>"I... I guess not.  But it's impossible. Gleb didn't shoot. Why do I feel like he did?"</p><p>Did that make sense? Dimitri seemed to understand well enough, much better than Anya did.</p><p>"Maybe... maybe it's not that he did. Maybe it's just that something else happened, something else that happened in your dream, and it feels real. Maybe… two different things can have the same outcome."</p><p>"Do you think so?"</p><p>"Didn't I just a say that?"</p><p>She playfully nudged him with her shoulder. "Yeah, but do you think it's likely?"</p><p>"I think if you feel this strongly about it, if it's causing this much stress, then this feeling can't be wrong. I don't know how it works, but it must work, somehow."</p><p>"Thank you for believing me, Dimitri," she said, leaning into him. He put his arm around her.</p><p>"Anytime, Anya," he replied, kissing the side of her head.</p><p>It felt good, again. So good to be with him. </p><p>Anya had a lot of worries in her life, and she still did, but thanks to Dimitri, a lot of them had disappeared. Thanks to him, she knew that she was safe and wanted, she knew that she was home wherever she was, as long as it was with him. She was where she belonged, even if there was still a part of her that couldn't let go of the past. There was a part of her that still held on to something, something else, and as much as she wanted to just forget, she didn't know how to let go.</p><p>Anya wondered if that one small part of her would ever be able to leave the past behind. She wondered if her heart could ever fully accept that things were what they were and there was no changing that. She desperately wanted to move on, fully, but she couldn't. Not yet. She hoped that one day, she would at least find out why.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gleb was called into the office of the new Deputy Commissioner, <em>his </em>office, one day much later. Gleb glanced around the office, the new Deputy Commissioner sitting behind what used to be his desk.</p><p>It was still the same view out of the window, still the same office, but there was something incredibly off about it. Gleb didn’t think it was just because it wasn’t his office anymore, that it wasn’t him behind the desk. There was something else.</p><p>"Sir?" Gleb asked curtly. "You requested me?"</p><p>The Deputy commissioner nodded. "Gleb Vaganov. The promising young man. Even since your childhood, you have vowed to do good for Russia, have you not?”</p><p>Gleb nodded.</p><p>“But have you succeeded?”</p><p>Gleb clenched his teeth. Everything he had ever said was going to be used against him.</p><p>“With the new Russia, we can no longer allow liars to serve in our ranks.”</p><p>No. Not now. Why him? He'd never done anything wrong. All he'd done was disobey orders once, and this was what he got? He saved a life, and this is how he was repaid. He'd been so incredibly loyal to Russia, he'd built up Leningrad to where it was today, and no one cared.</p><p>"You can't do this," he protested.</p><p>The Deputy Commissioner shrugged. "I'm afraid I must. Now you can leave peacefully, or you can make things difficult."</p><p>"I've done nothing but service to Russia!"</p><p>"You failed at your most crucial mission!" the Deputy Commissioner stood, banging on the desk. "You disobeyed orders, and you must be punished for it."</p><p>"I have been! Why do you think you are sitting there instead of me?"</p><p>"Out!"</p><p>Gleb was on the verge of becoming violent, but he felt someone seize his arms and he was pulled backward out of the office and all the way down to the door and thrown into the street. The doors slammed in front of him.</p><p>Russia and all those who lived there had turned their backs on him.</p><p>From that moment, Gleb threw away his vow to do good for Russia. Instead, he made a new promise. He vowed to get revenge on those who had wronged him. He vowed to get revenge on these fools who had forced him away.</p><p>He vowed to bring pain to them. All the pain they deserved.</p><p>He vowed to make them burn.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>i wanted to do more with this chapter and make it longer, but that didn't work out with the rest of what i was doing, so this was what i was left with for this chapter ¯\_(ツ)_/¯</p><p>also big thank you to everyone who's been reading! i actually can't believe this got over 100 hits!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>ha i almost forgot to post this today but my sister reminded me sooo...</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Anya could hardly sit still while she was on the train. She was so excited to finally be returning to Russia, but also so afraid of what she could find.</p>
<p>She was coming home, to Russia, after all this time.</p>
<p>It should be a joyous occasion, and a part of her felt that, but the other part of her felt terrified. If the things of her nightmare came true, it would be here. It would be on this trip.</p>
<p>She was afraid of somehow running into Gleb.</p>
<p>She was terrified of seeing what had become of him since he disobeyed orders by letting her go free.</p>
<p>She was terrified of that, but a small part of her seemed to long for it. A tiny part of her wanted to see Gleb again.</p>
<p>Anya noticed Dimitri seeming to shake beside her. She felt bad for not having noticed earlier because she was too caught up in her own thoughts.</p>
<p>"What are you thinking?" she whispered.</p>
<p>"It's been so long, since we were there," he replied just as quietly, "I'm afraid to see how it's changed." </p>
<p>"It could have gotten better," she pointed out.</p>
<p>"It could also have gotten worse. We have no way to know."</p>
<p>Anya nodded. He was right.</p>
<p>"But, " he continued, "I know that we'll be safe. We have everything worked out, and we'll be safe."</p>
<p>Anya looked down at her lap and smoothed drown her skirt. This dress was much nicer than she had worn in a while. It wasn't overly fancy or ridiculous, as some of the dresses she'd worn in Paris were, but still much more clean and nice than she had worn in that last city.</p>
<p>They were traveling as a more well-off  French couple, visiting Russia for the season, and they were certainly dressed for the part.</p>
<p>Anya had also spent the past few years teaching Dimitri how to speak French. When they first traveled to Paris, he learned a little along the way, enough to get by, but since they had been alone, just the two of them, Anya had tried to teach him more.</p>
<p>"Depuis combien de temps sommes-hous dans le train?" she asked, making sure he learned and he'd actually be able to understand.</p>
<p>Dimitri looked down at the watch in his suit.</p>
<p>"Pres de quatre heurus, je pense," he replied slowly.</p>
<p>"Bien! Tu t'améliores!!"</p>
<p>"J'ai un bon professeur."</p>
<p>She blushed. " J'essaie."</p>
<p>"Tu es trop modeste."</p>
<p>They ran through more words and phrases as the train flew across the countryside.</p>
<p>The closer they got, the less they talked. They no longer had anything to say. Not right now, when tensions were so high.</p>
<p>All Anya could feel was anxiety. She was excited, but even with that, all she could feel was fear.  The fear that something would go wrong, and maybe she couldn't be able to recover from it.</p>
<p>The fear that maybe, somehow, her dreams would become reality.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>yeah this was kind of a filler chapter before i got into the bigger stuff but it was needed anyway</p>
<p>also i don't speak French (but i wanna) so I'm just using google translate...<br/>here's what the conversation is in English:</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"How long have we been on the train?" she asked, making sure he learned and he'd actually be able to understand.</p>
<p>Dimitri looked down at the watch in his suit.</p>
<p>"Almost four hours, I think," he replied slowly.</p>
<p>"Good! You are improving !!"</p>
<p>"I have a good teacher."</p>
<p>She blushed. " I try."</p>
<p>"You are too modest."</p>
<p> </p>
<p>ha yes almost everything in this chapter is just to make it longer but whatever</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>In even the few short weeks since Gleb Vaganov had been thrown from his job and into the streets, he'd been reduced to a level he never had once thought he could sink to.  He had seen some people like what he had become in the streets before, but he had never once thought that it could, or even would happen to him. He had not known what it was truly like.</p><p>Now he did.</p><p>He knew all too well now.</p><p>Not only had he lost his position, even if it was a much lower one, but he also lost respect. The people of Russia used to fear him. They would go silent when he walked down the streets.</p><p>Now no one noticed when he passed. No one went quiet when he walked by.</p><p>No one cared.</p><p>He had become just as lowly as the rest of them.</p><p>When he walked through the streets, he'd have to push past people, when before they would clear a path for him. People used to cower before him, as he was the man to be feared. Now, he'd been attacked by people in the streets. People he didn't know, but they seemed to know him. At least, they did before. Sometimes he would manage to head them off, as you didn't become the Deputy Commissioner without knowledge of how to fight—and he considered himself quite good at it—but as of late, he'd fallen to them more than once. He was weak, weaker than he'd ever been in his life, and he hated to admit it, but he was afraid. He no longer knew if he would have work the next day, or food to eat, or a place to keep warm. Nothing was sure in his life anymore. It seemed, that since that one night in Paris, the only thing constant in his life was the surety that it would change again.</p><p>Perhaps this time it would change for good, but he knew that wasn't likely. Even though it seemed impossible at the moment, things could get worse. He could go lower than he was right now.</p><p>He didn't dare to hope that he wouldn't. He didn't dare to hope for anything.</p><p>Everything he had was stripped away, and now he was left with nothing, but that wasn't the worst he could be. Not yet.</p><p>Somehow, and he wasn't quite sure how, he could be left with less than nothing. At least right now, he sometimes had work and sometimes had food and sometimes had a place to keep warm. Even if everything was only a possibility, that was better than an impossibility.</p><p>Yes, Gleb Vaganov was left broke, bruised, and humiliated, but he was still alive.</p><p>They had taken him down, but they didn't finish him off. That was their fault.  Now everything that happened to them would be their fault.</p><p>He was just biding his time until he could take back everything he'd lost. Then they would see. Then they would know that Gleb Vaganov was not a man to be messed with. He was not aiming to play games, but if that's what they all thought this was, he'd play.</p><p>And he would play to win.</p><p>Gleb was curled up on the edge of a street, trying to keep warm when he felt a slight change in the air. He looked up to see two new strangers walking through the streets. A tall, dark-haired man and a short, gold-haired woman. They were both nicely-dressed, enough so to stand out among the dull streets.</p><p>As they walked closer, Gleb realized there was something familiar about them, as if he'd seen them before. But how could he have? He hadn't seen anyone this nicely-dressed since—</p><p>It couldn't be.  They couldn't have returned. Why would they?</p><p>They were passing even closer. He had to do something, quickly, or he'd miss his chance. They were coming even nearer by the moment. Soon, they'd be passing directly in front of him. Without pausing to consider what he was doing, he reached out just as they were passing in front of him and took the woman's hand. He was sure of who it was now. She pulled her hand away for a moment, giving a quiet shriek, then both turned to look at him.  He hid his face from them, realizing too late that he didn't want them to see what he had become.</p><p>But they didn't continue on. He finally looked back up and caught the woman's eyes. He had... remarked, so to say, on her eyes once before.</p><p>Her eyes widened as she recognized him.</p><p>"Gleb?" she exclaimed in a shaky voice.</p><p>That was when the man recognized him. He tugged on Anya's arm, seeming to try to get her away from Gleb.</p><p>Gleb took hold of her hand again, pressing his lips to the silky material of her glove. This time she didn't pull away, only look at him with concerned eyes as Dimitri tried to get her away from him.</p><p>He didn't say a word or let go of her hand. He didn't think he'd be able to if he tried. Gleb didn't know what they could be doing here, as it was possibly the most dangerous thing they could do to return to Russia. That being said, a part of him was glad that they were here. At least, he was glad that she was here. Dimitri less so. They'd never actually conversed, the two of them, but before Paris, Dimitri had been a pain in Gleb's side for years. But Anya... Anya had always done her part. she'd never once caused trouble until she got involved with Dimitri. That was the moment everything had gone wrong.</p><p>"Can you stand?" Anya asked delicately.</p><p>Gleb grunted as a response but rose to his feet.  He was weak but strong enough to stand and walk.</p><p>Anya turned to look at Dimitri. "We're taking him back to the room."</p><p>"Are you crazy?" Dimitri exclaimed. "We can't take him back!"</p><p>"He's not well, Dimitri!" she hissed under her breath.</p><p>Dimitri relented but continued to glare and Gleb over Anya's head. Gleb would be lying if he said he didn't return the glare.</p><p>Anya did exactly as she said she would, taking Gleb back to where she and Dimitri were staying. She then left Gleb in the bathroom to clean up, even bringing him some of what Gleb assumed were Dimitri’s clothes, which Gleb begrudgingly accepted.</p><p>Then he was left alone. He had barely managed to say a word up to this point. He was too… embarrassed. He was embarrassed that Anya had seen what he had become, because it certainly wasn’t pleasant.</p><p>That was clear when he looked into the mirror. A beard had begun to grow during the time he had spent on the streets. Shaving was one of the first things he had done to fix his appearance but doing that led to showing a lot more prominent problems. Shaving brought to his attention the amount of bruises and cuts on his face. He tried to clean some of the dried blood off his face as well, but it didn’t work completely.</p><p>He had a nasty bruise around one of his eyes, and his nose might be broken. He'd been through worse, but that didn't make this good.  He eventually tried to put on the clothes that Anya had given him to change into, finding them a little small, but still immensely better than what he'd been wearing. Then he finally worked up the courage to go out and face Anya and Dimitri again.</p><p>Dimitri was sitting in a chair by the window, his feet up on an end table with a book in his hands. Anya was sitting up on the bed, brushing out her strawberry-blonde hair.</p><p>"How do you feel?" she asked him.</p><p>He grunted as a response once again.</p><p>"You've hardly said a word since we found you. Are you alright?"</p><p>"Does it look as if I am?" he retorted harshly.</p><p>"Gleb, please, we're trying to help—"</p><p>"Why did you return to Russia? It was possibly the stupidest thing you could have done."</p><p>"The only stupid thing we've done is take you in," Dimitri said, rising out of his chair. "How do we know you won't finish the job you were given and turn us both in?"</p><p>"Do you think if I had wanted you dead or imprisoned I wouldn't have done it before? When I had the chance?"</p><p>"I think you'd do just about anything for your old job back."</p><p>"Then you truly don't know me at all."</p><p>"That's right, I don't, which is exactly I think we should just throw you back out there—"</p><p>"Dimitri!" Anya accused.</p><p>"You can't seriously think he doesn't mean us harm?"</p><p>"Yes, I do! And you should too!" Now she turned to face Gleb. "Do you have to be so arrogant? I'm trying to help you, can't you see that?"</p><p>"I see that one of you means kindness, the other, I have yet to determine the motive."</p><p>Dimitri began to stalk out of the room. "I can't deal with this anymore."</p><p>"Where are you going?" Anya asked, standing up and starting to go after him.</p><p>"Somewhere that's not here!" he retorted, grabbing his coat and slamming the door behind him.</p><p>Anya turned back to Gleb. "Can't you just accept that for once you don't always have to be the one in charge? Can't you just be a good person and realize when you need help?"</p><p>"He was being intolerable!"</p><p>"And frankly, so are you! Dimitri was trying to be nice, by letting you come back here, and you treat him like that!"</p><p>"It's quite plain that he doesn't think I should be here," Gleb pointed out. "He doesn't trust me."</p><p>"And you don't trust him either. He isn't the only one at fault here. You aren't innocent." Can you please at least try to be civil to him?"</p><p>Gleb crossed his arms over his chest. "Only if he does."</p><p>Anya rolled her eyes at him. "Do you have to be so childish?" she sighed. "Just try, won't you? I'll tell him to do the same."</p><p>Gleb reluctantly agreed.</p><p>"Good. Now come here, we need to treat those wounds before they get worse."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>spot the Wicked, Mean Girls, and  Jekyll &amp; Hyde references (why-we-build-the-wall yes this is for you)</p><p>and woo a lot of stuff happened in that chapter. ha i hope that it makes sense and if not i apologize 🙃</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dimitri put his coat on as he stalked down and out into the streets of St. Petersburg. Once he got out to the street, he stopped for only a moment to so consider which way to go.</p><p>He chose a street and stuck to it. He walked through down the street, slowing his pace slightly once he was outside of view of the building he'd just left.</p><p>Why, of all people, did they have to run into him? Gleb Vaganov, the officer, the statue, or whatever it was they used to call him.</p><p>The man who had very nearly killed Anya.</p><p>Now he was alone with her again, and Dimitri was supposed to just be okay with it. He shouldn't have left. Who knows what could be going on back there, but he couldn't just stay there. Not with him there.</p><p>From the very moment he and Anya had boarded the train, Dimitri knew that something would go wrong. He just never expected something like this. Of anything, he never expected running into Gleb Vaganov.</p><p>Somehow, with his traveling through the streets, he'd ended up at the Yusupov Palace. The very palace that Anya had grown up in, and where he and Vlad had taken up refuge. He hadn't been here in forever.</p><p>So many memories inside those empty halls.</p><p>It was where he had first met Anya. Officially, anyway. That summer day in his childhood hardly counted.</p><p>They'd not been able to get along at all back then. They had fought, constantly, but look at them now.</p><p>It certainly was interesting, to see just how far someone could come. From hatred to love.</p><p>He worried now that he might lose everything, everything he'd worked hard to build. He worried now that he might lose Anya.</p><p>He regretted leaving her alone with Gleb once again. The only thing that kept him from dashing back immediately was knowing that there Gleb was disarmed and even weaker than he'd ever been. Anya knew how to defend herself. If worse came to worse, Dimitri only hoped she wouldn't be foolish enough to not fight back. She was deluded right now, deluded because of her nightmare. She thought that since he was in need of help, that he was worth the risk of getting discovered. She didn't know. She didn't know him as Dimitri did.</p><p>Dimitri had lived in Petersburg his entire life, until they left for Paris. He's always seen Gleb around. He'd always known the danger that man carried with him on his shoulders. Anya was in danger more than any.</p><p>Dimitri had known Gleb well enough just by observing that the man was power-hungry. He'd stop at nothing to get that power back.</p><p>Maybe someone could change drastically, from hatred to love, but not a man like Gleb. A man like him remained the same, forever, or he got worse. There was no getting better. Not for a man like Gleb Vaganov.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gleb let out a hissing breath when Anya tried to clean one of the more nasty cuts on his arm.</p><p>“I dreamt about you,” she said, “a few months ago.”</p><p>“And what, pray tell, would you have dreamt about?”</p><p>“Oh, nothing much,” she said pleasantly, then she changed her laid-back air as she told him. “Just what would have happened if you ended up being your father’s son.”</p><p>She felt his eyes on her, seeming to bore into her, but she didn’t look up.</p><p>“Anya, I… I never wanted to bring you any pain.”</p><p>“You should have thought of that before you treated Dimitri like you did.”</p><p>Part of her felt bad for snapping at Gleb, but most of her knew that he deserved it.</p><p>"I... I'm sorry, Anya," he eventually said.</p><p>"Mhm," she replied.</p><p>"And... thank you."</p><p>Now that was something she didn't expect him to say. She looked up at him in surprise.</p><p>"If it weren't for you, I don't know how much longer I would have lasted."</p><p>"It was the least I could do. You saved my life, I saved yours in return."</p><p>"But I didn't save your life Anya, I just didn't kill you." He winced. "That... didn't sound right."</p><p>"You think?" she laughed. "Want to try again?"</p><p>"I doubt I could phrase it in a better way."</p><p>They slipped into silence again. Until Gleb cleared his throat and began again.</p><p>"Would you... would you tell me more about your dream?"</p><p>"It was less of a dream and more of a nightmare. You know, I hadn't had one for years until this one."</p><p>Gleb winced again, though it may not have been entirely her response. She had moved to clean another part of his arm.</p><p>She began anyway. "It started out just like that night had. You locking us in that room, you asking me who I really was, all of that. Then... it changed. You fulfilled your duty and pulled the trigger. Then Russia fell into chaos. I... I don't remember most of it, but there was fire, somewhere. Fire burning all around you. You’d think that finally killing the last of the Romanovs would bring forth the Russia you’d always wanted, but it didn’t. Quite the opposite, in fact."</p><p>Silence fell again, except for the occasional hiss from Gleb when Anya helped to clean a more painful area.</p><p>Eventually, Dimitri came back in, not saying a word and as he hung his coat near the door and went back to the chair he'd been in before. Anya glanced up at him but decided against trying to talk to him right now. He probably still needed time to cool down.  It was much later that night when Dimitri finally spoke a word.</p><p>"He can't stay here," Dimitri said, still lounging out on the chair with his feet up on the table.</p><p>"Dimitri, we've been over this," Anya said, exasperatedly.</p><p>"No, I mean he really can't. We don't have room here."</p><p>Anya turned to Gleb. "I'm so sorry. Will you excuse us for a moment?" She stood up and walked over to where Dimitri was, taking his arm and dragging him out of the room and into the hall.</p><p>"Why are you so insistent on getting him to leave?"</p><p>"Oh, maybe it has to do with the fact that he tried to kill you?" he exclaimed, his voice dangerously loud.</p><p>"Keep your voice down!"</p><p>"Yes, because yelling is going to get us found out, rather than the man who is likely planning how to turn us in as we speak?"</p><p>"He's not planning anything like that, Dimitri, you just want to think he is!"</p><p>"No, you just want to think that he's a good person now, so you're ignoring all the evidence against him. I let you take him back here, I let you clean his injuries, I even let him use my clothes, I but I will not let him stay. I will not run the risk of us getting found out just to help a man who tried to kill you!"</p><p>"He didn't try to kill me, he had orders to. There's a difference."</p><p>"Is there?" Did he not put a gun to your head and very nearly pull the trigger? That sounds like trying to kill you to me."</p><p>"Dimitri, please," she whispered. "He's not well, you have to be able to see that."</p><p>"I can, I can see that he's weak and frail, but I can't risk him turning us in. I can't risk losing you." He took hold of her hands. "I can't lose you, Anya."</p><p>She could feel her eyes beginning to water. "Dimitri, it's my fault he's like this, my fault that he became like this. I can't let him die."</p><p>Dimitri went quiet. He slowly pulled his hands away and stepped back. "Do you love him?"</p><p>The tears slipped out of Anya's eyes. "I don't know what I feel, but I still love you, Dimitri. I still do."</p><p>"How can I be sure of that anymore?"</p><p>"Dimitri—"</p><p>"I'm going to Paris. Come and find me once you work out what is it is you're feeling."</p><p>He took off down the hall, Anya called out for him, even ran after him, but by the time she reached the street, he was already gone.</p><p>She went back up the room where Gleb was still waiting. </p><p>"Where's—" Gleb tried, but she cut him off.</p><p>"He left," she said, tr wiping away her tears. "You drove him away."</p><p>"Anya, I—"</p><p>"I don't want to hear from you," she told him. "You can stay, for the night. After that, we'll see."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>oooh angsty time</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>technically it is Saturday in my time zone (it is exactly 12:08 in the morning i should go to bed)</p><p>i am officially sorry</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dimitri considered himself lucky that he had the sense the keep his papers in his pockets rather than in his coat, as well as that he had kept money with his papers. Otherwise, he'd either be stuck, or he'd have to t return there to retrieve his coat and run the risk of being convinced to stay.</p><p>It hurt him to run away, more than he could even express, but he knew that this was what he needed to do.  He needed to get away from here. Paris was his best option.</p><p>Dimitri went down to the train station to purchase a ticket, any ticket that would get him away so that he could start towards Paris.</p><p>The train station was where he ran into trouble. There were people there, people that Dimitri knew, back from his days living in Petersburg. His days in the streets.</p><p>The last time he'd seen these people was not long before they'd left for Paris. Anya had managed to scare them away before. This time, he was alone.</p><p>As he passed, Dimitri prayed that no one would recognize him. He didn't exactly look like his old self. If nothing else, he was certainly a lot cleaner.</p><p>It seemed not to be.</p><p>Dimitri had nearly gotten past them when he felt someone grab onto his arm. He stopped walking and turned around.</p><p>"Well, if it isn't Dimitri Sundayev himself," one of them exclaimed. "Thought you escaped."</p><p>“Come back to your old playing grounds, did you?”</p><p>“Wanted to see some old friends?”</p><p>Dimitri tugged his arms arm away and shrugged. "Simply enough, I came back. Good to see you too.”</p><p>There were four of them. He was terribly outnumbered. His only hope was that a fight wouldn't break out.</p><p>"No little princess to protect you now, is there, Dima?"</p><p>Dimitri clenched his fists. How dare they call him that? Only one person was allowed to call him that anymore, since his father died, and he'd left her behind.</p><p>It was just now dawning on him what all he had done.</p><p>"I don't want any trouble," Dimitri insisted. "I just want to leave."</p><p>"Why'd you even come back then, if you were just gonna leave?"</p><p><em>I don't know</em>, he thought.</p><p>"Why is it you get to leave and become a prince while the rest of us got to stay here?"</p><p>"What makes you think you're better than us?"</p><p>"I don't think that I'm better than any of you," he insisted. "I just want to leave."</p><p>"He don't want any of that fancy stuff. Why don't we just take it?"</p><p>"Just let me leave and you'll never have to see me again, I promise."</p><p>"As if your promises ever did anyone any good.”</p><p>Without another word, they lunged at Dimitri. He did his best to fend them off, but before long, he was surrounded by the four of them.</p><p>He kept fighting back, but it was to no avail.</p><p>All he felt was a sharp pain in his face then everything went dark.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>so i'm posting at midnight yet again...<br/>christmas break is really ruining my sleep schedule</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Anya woke that next morning, she immediately went to the bathroom to get ready, as well as to plan what she was going to do now. She had to figure out just what to do with Gleb, and if she was going to go after Dimitri. And if she was, when?</p><p>She couldn't just let him run away, she couldn't just let him leave. What if she lost him forever?</p><p>But she couldn't just go after him right away either. He ran for a reason, and if she ran after him, he might just run again. And if he ran away again, she might never be able to find him again.</p><p>She heard a knock at the bathroom door.</p><p>"I'm busy," she snapped.</p><p>"You might want to see this," Gleb’s voice replied. She heard footsteps as he walked away from that bathroom door.</p><p>Her curiosity go the best of her. She quickly put a robe on as she wasn't completely dressed yet, then opened the bathroom door and stepped out.</p><p>Her hand went to her mouth when she saw just what—or rather, who Gleb wanted her to see.</p><p>Dimitri had returned, but hardly the same as when he left. His clothes were torn, his hair dirty and messed up, and in nearly as bad of condition as Gleb had been when they found him. Dimitri was standing by the window, his arms crossed over his chest, and his face set in a scowl. He didn't appear to be glaring at Gleb, rather just that he was not in a good mood. That could be a development.</p><p>Anya rushed over to him, trying to place her hands on the sides of his face, but he batted her hands away.</p><p>"What happened?" she asked, only slightly hurt that he had pushed her away.</p><p>"Tried to get a ticket out," he grunted. "Met some old friends."</p><p>Anya gasped. The same alleged ‘friends’ of his she’d met before? "They did this to you?"</p><p>"I was outnumbered, they didn't like me there. They took everything I had with me. I'm stuck here now." He turned away from her towards the window.</p><p>Anya figured that would be all he would be willing to tell her now. He was obviously still fuming from the night before. She didn't blame him.</p><p>But even if he Dimitri refused to tell more, she wasn't going to let him stand there when he should be getting cleaned up.</p><p>Since Dimitri still pushed her hands away when she tried to help, she gave up on that and instead pushed fresh clothes into his hands and forced him into the bathroom.</p><p>She had still yet to finish getting ready when she had forced Dimitri into the bathroom. She was still wearing the robe, but at that moment she didn't much care.</p><p>Why were both of them so prone to getting hurt?</p><p>"I... I should probably go," Gleb said nervously, beginning to head for the door.</p><p>"You sit right back down and stay," she told him, waving her hairbrush towards him. "No one is going anywhere since apparently, neither of you can take care of yourselves when you're alone."</p><p>Gleb obediently sat back down.</p><p>She didn't understand. Dimitri had always been able to take care of himself before they even met.  Why did he come back like this?</p><p>And Gleb, well, she couldn't exactly blame him for what happened, but she would never have expected it. She may not know Gleb well, certainly not as well as she would like, but she knew he was a fighter. It didn't make sense for him to give up, which was what he looked like he'd done when Anya came across him.</p><p>Anya had no idea what to do anymore. Apparently, she couldn't let either of them go out on their own.</p><p>They were stuck in Russia until they could find a way for Dimitri—possibly herself as well—to get new papers, and maybe even papers for Gleb as well, because there was no way Anya was leaving him behind to go back to whatever he was doing before she found him.</p><p>She really couldn't leave either of them alone for more than 2 seconds, could she?</p><p>Anya felt close to exploding right now, but she kept it all inside. Since she apparently had to be the responsible one of them.  When Dimitri came out of the bathroom with fresh clothes, she pushed medicines and bandages into his arms and forced him to sit down, then she headed back towards the bathroom to finish getting ready.</p><p>"And so help me, if I find either of you somehow hurt even more I will kill you myself," she threatened before slamming the bathroom door.</p><p>They were stuck in Russia, she supposed. And more than that, Dimitri's fake papers were out there, somewhere. If someone found them to be fake, and they were able to trace them back to the source, they'd be found out.</p><p>This was meant to be a short trip to Russia just to see it again. A one-time trip before leaving all of her past behind.</p><p>How could it go so wrong?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i've decided to post a new chapter of each of my wips today as a Christmas present to you all! i love everyone who's been reading my stuff so much!</p><p>Merry Christmas (or happy holidays for whatever you celebrate! :D)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gleb had never felt more uncomfortable than he did in the moments after Anya had locked herself in the bathroom to finish getting ready, leaving him alone with Dimitri.</p><p>Neither spoke at first, but soon the silence became suffocating. Gleb couldn't bring himself to keep quiet anymore.</p><p>"I mean you and Anya no harm, Dimitri," Gleb tried. "I am not the man I once was."</p><p>"How am I supposed to believe that?" Dimitri asked, not glancing up at him.</p><p>"Just know that I have already had dozens of chances to turn both of you in, and I would have done it by now if I had wanted."</p><p>Dimitri glanced up for a moment before going back to focusing on wrapping his arm in bandages.</p><p>"Can we at least have a truce? For Anya's sake?"</p><p>"You'd best not be implying what I think you are."</p><p>"We both know she's never going to let me leave. We should at least make an attempt to make things easier on all of us."</p><p>Dimitri didn't respond. He kept trying to tie the bandage.</p><p>"You're doing it wrong," Gleb pointed it out, standing up and walking over to Dimitri. Gleb tried to help, but Dimitri pulled his arms away.</p><p>"Don't touch me," he growled. “I know how to do this. I’ve done it before.”</p><p>“Yes, but the way you’re tying it won’t help as much as it could.”</p><p>"I'm telling the truth," he insisted. "If you tie it like that, there's not enough pressure on the cut. You have to tie it tighter. Let me help." Gleb wondered how on Earth Dimitri managed to have survived this long without knowing how to properly bandage an injury. It just didn’t quite add up. "I'm trying to help," Gleb insisted. Dimitri looked at him suspiciously.</p><p>"You've never been one to help."</p><p>"I'm changed, Dimitri. I don't know how I can make you believe that, but it's true."</p><p>Dimitri still held his arm away from Gleb, even leaning back in his seat to get farther away from Gleb.</p><p>Dimitri slowly held out his arm. Gleb took hold of the edges of the bandages, tying them around Dimitri's arm.</p><p>"Ow!" Dimitri exclaimed, pulling his arm back again.</p><p>"Should have warned you it was going to hurt, I guess," Gleb shrugged. Dimitri held his arm around again. Gleb finished tying the bandage then stepped back. Dimitri looked at his arm. He seemed to deem it good work since he stood up and held out his arm.</p><p>"I've decided to give you this chance. Truce, I guess."</p><p>"For Anya's sake," Gleb agreed, taking Dimitri's hand and shaking on it.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>and yay! development!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter 13</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I forgot today was Saturday so for once I'm not posting at midnight (i was still up till midnight tho...)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Anya half-expected to find one of them dead when she came out of the bathroom. What she did not expect was to find them sitting beside each other, Gleb helping Dimitri clean and wrap his wounds.</p><p>They looked up when she entered the room.</p><p>"Am I killing anyone or am I not?"</p><p>They shook their heads.</p><p>"No need for that," Dimitri insisted. "We're both fine."</p><p>"How hard did you get hit?" she asked, rushing over to him.</p><p>"Pretty hard I guess," Dimitri replied. "I mean, I'm pretty sure I passed out."</p><p>"I wish I could take you to a hospital, both of you, for that matter."</p><p>"But it's too dangerous," Gleb finished. Anya nodded.</p><p>"It would probably be best for all of us to stay in this room until we can figure out how to get out of Russia. We'll need new papers, tickets—"</p><p>"We know," Dimitri interrupted. "But we can't get any right now. We have to lie low, for a little while."</p><p>"Or we'll get found out," Anya whispered, nodding. She looked between them. "We're going to need a bigger room, aren't we?"</p><p>To her surprise, Gleb and Dimitri shook their heads.</p><p>"We'll be fine with this one," Gleb insisted.</p><p>"You will?" she asked.</p><p>Dimitri nodded. "We'll be fine."</p><p>"Are you sure you're alright?" she asked, reaching up to feel Dimitri's forehead for signs of fever.</p><p>Dimitri nodded. "I'm fine, Anya. You don't have to worry."</p><p>She was worrying, though. Dimitri wasn't acting like himself, and neither was Gleb.</p><p>She guessed, if they were getting along, that was a good thing.  She was still suspicious though. There was something else going on, something that she was obviously missing, but she decided to look past it. For the moment, at least.</p><p>Anya turn walked towards the door. "I'm going to go order some food. No one die while I'm gone. I'm still up for killing someone if I need to."</p><p>She walked out of the room and down the hall. She ordered breakfast and instructed it to be delivered to their room, then went back up to the room.</p><p>When she entered the room, she fully expected Dimitri and Gleb to be fighting, the obvious facade that they were using when she was there to have disappeared, but they were still getting along, somehow.</p><p>"Breakfast should be coming soon," she told them. "I guess it looks like no one is getting murdered today," she said as she sat down on the edge of the bed. "At least, not by me." She spread out her arms and let herself fall backward into the bed. </p><p>When the food arrived, they cleared off the small table and sat around it.</p><p>The food had disappeared before long. Everyone had been hungry, that was for certain.</p><p>Then came the real challenge. Surviving the day without one of them getting murdered by the other.</p><p>This was going to be an adventure.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>so... facade is my favorite word and i will not pass up a chance to include it when i can</p><p>also, everyone who has been reading this, thank you, and i love you so much!! &lt;3</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Chapter 14</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Good news! i did NOT stay up until midnight last night! (at least, i don't think i did...</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first few days were fine. Things were tense, between them all, but that was to be expected. It was after a couple of weeks when things began to get harder.</p><p>The room was incredibly suffocating, especially since it was literally one room and a bathroom. It would have been perfect if it were just for Anya and Dimitri like it had been intended to be, but now that Gleb was with them, it felt incredibly small, even if it was only one more person than expected.</p><p>Dimitri did try to avoid Gleb more later on, after a few days of trying to get along, it became too much, and he felt like he might explode before long. He still honored the truce, for Anya's sake, as they had both agreed, but he found it much more difficult than he ever could have expected.</p><p>To his credit, Gleb seemed to be trying equally hard, and still seemed to feel the same way as Dimitri, incredibly close to snapping and doing something rash, so it was mutually agreed that they would try to spend as much time apart as possibly possible in the small room.</p><p>There wasn’t exactly much to do in the small room. Books and even card games were about as far as activities could go.</p><p>Dimitri considered himself lucky that he had learned how to read as a child, since not many got that opportunity. Still, in his youth, he never cared for it much. Mostly because he didn’t have the time to do so. Or even an actual book to read.</p><p>Now he had plenty of books, and even more time.</p><p>More time than he could possibly fill.</p><p>Dimitri had read all the books in the room in less than a month—and he wasn’t exactly a fast reader. He just had nothing else to fill his time with.</p><p>Then he read them all again, or, at least, he was working on it.</p><p>By the time a month had passed, the room was usually filled with icy silence, broken only by Anya trying to get them to talk to each other again, but both tried to avoid it.</p><p>"Fine then," Anya said, picking up a book and laying out on the bed to read it. Dimitri fell down to the bed beside her, Anya flying into the air for a moment, laughing as it happened.</p><p>It felt good to hear her laugh again. The room had been too quiet and dull for a while. He wrapped his arms around Anya's waist.</p><p>"What are you doing, Dima?" she giggled.</p><p>"What does it look like?" he pressed a kiss to the back of her head.</p><p>Dimitri heard the faint sounding of a door close but didn’t stop to wonder what it could mean.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>yeah this is a shorter chapter because i wanted to do something in Dimitri's point of view but i couldn't figure out how to stretch it more, but whatever</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Chapter 15</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>good news: i did not stay up until midnight to post this</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gleb stood up and went into the bathroom the moment Dimitri had hopped onto the bed. He locked the door of the bathroom and started pacing the tiny space. He didn't want to stay in that room anymore. Not with Dimitri and Anya being like... that.</p><p>He had known that Anya and Dimitri were together, he knew that they loved each other, but now, seeing it happen, like this, he couldn't handle it.</p><p>He had known for a long time that he felt something for Anya. He'd felt it since possibly the first day he'd met her.</p><p>It took him a while to realize that what he felt was love.</p><p>Gleb knew that his feelings would never fade. He'd feel this love for Anya forever, which made it exceptionally painful to be here, with her, and watch her and Dimitri live the life that he wished he could have with her.</p><p>But right now... there was something more. An ... extra pain. He wasn't sure if it was just Anya. He felt... that there was something... more.</p><p>He'd started feeling even more odd when he was with Anya and Dimitri—which was all the time, but specifically when he was near to them. It wasn't just Anya, at least, he didn't think it was.</p><p>When he first realized his love for Anya, it was much simpler. This was strange and difficult, compared to that.</p><p>His love for Anya hadn't faded. If anything, it had grown.</p><p>The problem didn't lie in that.</p><p>The problem lay in the fact that he was starting to feel new feelings, new love, love that he never would have thought possible.</p><p>Gleb had always thought that a person could only fall in love once, with a single person. He didn't know where he had learned it, but n he never questioned it.</p><p>He never questioned a lot of things back then.</p><p>Now, after he'd already doubted everything else he thought he knew to be true, he was doubting this as well.</p><p>If he was right, which part of her felt</p><p>If he was right, which part of him desperately hoped hi he wasn't, then he believed he was starting to fall for Dimitri too.</p><p>This could be bad. No, it would be bad.</p><p>It would be terrible if others found out. It could be worse than anything he'd ever have happen to him.</p><p>He could lose everything he'd gained in the past few weeks.</p><p>He could lose his life, but that would be less painful.</p><p>Gleb had never dealt with anything like this before.  He thought he's figured out everything. He thought he had, but not this.</p><p>Love was the one thing he'd never been able to understand. It was the one mystery he could never solve.</p><p>The mystery had just gotten deeper.</p><p>He was drowning in this mystery, and he wasn't sure if he'd be able to come up for air.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Chapter 16</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There was a sharp pain in Gleb's heart whenever he saw Anya and Dimitri do so much as brush hands.  He loved just how much they loved each other, which made everything slightly easier.</p><p>At least the two people he loved had someone to love them that they loved back. It was a small comfort to him, that they loved each other.</p><p>It was what they deserved.</p><p>But it hurt <em>so much</em>.</p><p>He watched as Anya and Dimitri displayed their love to each other in small ways, his heart breaking slightly more every moment.</p><p>Anya always tried to include Gleb in certain activities, but most of the time he refused. He preferred to watch them from a distance, even if the distance was only a few meters. They always looked much more comfortable when it was the two of them, they always looked happier. If him staying away—at least as 'away' as he could get—made them happier, then he'd stay away. Anything to make Anya and Dimitri smile and laugh.</p><p>Today the two of them were playing a card game, Gleb pretending to read a book, but it was truly just an excuse so that they wouldn't think he was staring at them.</p><p>Dimitri suddenly threw down his cards in his hand, causing the two of them to laugh seemingly uncontrollably.</p><p>He was such a goner for both of them.</p><p>Gleb quickly looked back down at his book when they both turned to look at him.</p><p>"Come on and play," Anya invited him.</p><p>Part of him desperately wanted to accept, but he couldn't. He refused.</p><p>"I'm perfectly fine over here, thanks."</p><p>"You never join the fun, Gleb," Dimitri accused. "Just this once?"</p><p>Gleb glanced back up. They were both looking at him with pleading eyes.</p><p>If only he'd been able to refuse their eyes.</p><p>Gleb put his book down—he wasn't technically reading it anyway—and went over to join them. His heart pounded as he sat down beside them. </p><p>His thoughts were moving at the speed of light, trying to process what was happening and if he was ready.</p><p>The answer to the second question was 'no.' He was not ready.</p><p>He'd never be ready.</p><p>Especially not when he and Dimitri seemed to lock eyes for half a second when Dimitri was handing out the cards.</p><p>Gleb could hardly hear or feel anything else over the sound of his pounding heart.</p><p>He was going to make a fool of himself, and then they wouldn't want him around anymore. They'd throw him out, as he deserved, and once again Gleb Vaganov would lose everything he'd learned to love.</p><p>He had to play it cool. He had to pretend that he was normal. That he was okay. That he wasn't completely in love with the people on either side of him.</p><p>It would be easy, right? Right?</p><p>Yeah well, it wasn't seeming so easy.</p><p>Gleb lost terribly in the first round of the game he played, but at least this time he had an excuse rather than being unable to think after he and Dimitri brushed hands. It was his first round. It would be expected for him to do terribly.</p><p>The problem was that it happened the next time too. Only this time, it was because Anya had put her hand on his shoulder to steady herself after nearly falling over from laughing.</p><p>And the next time. And the next. He kept failing over and over because the people he sat beside were both too perfect and amazing and he was not used to dealing with this.</p><p>After far too many rounds of losing terribly, Gleb put his cards down and left the table.</p><p>"Gleb, what's wrong?" Anya eyes, her eyes full of concern.</p><p>"Don't be a sore loser!" Dimitri added.</p><p>"I guess card games just aren't for me," he said, sitting back down and grabbing his book again. "Go ahead and keep playing. I'm fine."</p><p>"Are you sure?" Anya asked.</p><p>His heart could not handle her concern for him.</p><p>He nodded. "Go ahead."</p><p>They both turned back and began resumed playing, Gleb going back to watching them and trying to quiet his pounding heart.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Gleb you hopeless idiot</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Chapter 17</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Anya had to stop herself from casting another worried glance over her shoulder at Gleb. He'd been acting so strange lately. He hardly even spoke to them anymore, never joined in on anything she invited him to. She was worried about him. She felt good when she finally managed to get him to play a game of cards with them, and he seemed to be having a good time, even if he kept losing spectacularly every time, but then he had stopped so suddenly.</p><p>It was strange. He was really starting to scare her.</p><p>She mentioned that to Dimitri that night when Gleb was in the bathroom.</p><p>"Is Gleb acting strange to you?"</p><p>"Anya, he's always been strange."</p><p>"But is he <em>acting</em> strange?"</p><p>"That is the same question you just asked, Anya."</p><p>"I know, it's just that it's something different this time. "</p><p>"He seems happy, doesn't he?" Dimitri asked. Anya nodded. He did seem strangely happy. Maybe that was why Anya was worried about him. Not that he <em>was </em>happy, per se, just that she couldn’t quite pinpoint what was the cause of it.</p><p>"Look, if things keep getting worse, if you still feel like something is wrong in a couple of days, we'll talk to him about it. Okay?"</p><p>She nodded. "Okay."</p><p>Dimitri put his hand beneath her chin and lifted up her head. He leaned in and planted a kiss on Anya's lips.</p><p>She leaned in further and couldn’t keep back a smile as she kissed him.</p><p>Everything still felt so right with Dimitri. She loved him, just as much or even more than before.</p><p>But...</p><p>Her heart was telling her something else. Her heart was leading her in a different direction.</p><p>Everything felt so complicated, and yet so simple.</p><p>She loved Dimitri, but she was starting love to love Gleb too. At least, that's what she thought.</p><p>Anya couldn't help but wonder why her heart would lead her in two different directions at the same time.</p><p>One thing she knew was that she knew Gleb Vaganov, and he was not acting like himself. He was being strange, and maybe Dimitri couldn't see that. Maybe he wouldn't see that, but Anya could. She decided then and there that she was going to talk to him about it, tomorrow.</p><p>When hopefully things would make a little more sense.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Chapter 18</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gleb lie awake that night, unable to sleep. He was listening to the steady sounds of Anya and Dimitri breathing as they slept. By now, it was quite clear that they were asleep. He could move now, do what he’d been planning for a long time. If he did so now, it would make everything easier. The sooner he began, the sooner it would be over with.</p><p>And yet, Gleb didn’t move. He continued to lay there, listening to Anya and Dimitri’s soft and steady breathing. He couldn’t bring himself to move, not quite yet.</p><p>He just kept laying there, listening, hoping to internalize the simple but beautiful sound.</p><p>But he couldn’t wait any longer.</p><p>Gleb sat up, looking across the room at them, and let out a long breath.</p><p>Was he really going to do this?</p><p>As he looked over to them, he realized that he had no choice.</p><p>Gleb stood up and went to the door. He pulled his coat from off the hanger and pulled it on, not taking his eyes off the sleeping forms of Anya and Dimitri for longer than a moment.</p><p>Then he reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out an envelope. Not an empty one, no, not nearly. He set it on the table before walking over to the bed.</p><p>He leaned down over the bed and planted a soft kiss on Anya's forehead, then went around to the other side of the bed and did the same to Dimitri. Then he started out the door. He turned back for a moment, wiping the tears out of his eyes as he whispered, "I love you."</p><p>Then he left the room and closed the door behind him.</p><p>This wasn't the first time he'd left the room by night when Anya and Dimitri were sleeping, but it would be the last.</p><p>The only difference was that this time, he wasn't returning.</p><p>Gleb wandered the dark streets of his ‘beloved’ Leningrad through the remainder of the night. He had no destination in mind to go, only time he had to wait. There were other people on the streets, but he didn’t see them. Not really. He saw dark forms, not people.</p><p>That’s what ‘people’ had always been in his mind, hadn’t they? Only forms. Blurry forms. Some clearer forms. Not people. No one was real, in his mind. There were only those who were helpful to Russia and those who weren’t. He never saw who they truly were, only the work they did—or didn’t do—and if it was beneficial to the country.</p><p>He didn’t think that way anymore. Anya and Dimitri, they had cleared his vision. More than that, they had opened his eyes. People were people, and those people were complicated. He tried to see that way, but right now, at night, he still didn’t fully see them. Maybe his vision was still clouded.</p><p>Maybe by his conscious decision of leaving behind the only two people he’d ever truly loved.</p><p>If Anya and Dimitri did as he asked in the letter he'd written, they'd leave and never come back to Russia. This world wasn't for them, not anymore. They belonged in a different, brighter world than what he did.</p><p>They had to leave, and soon. Because before long, it would be too late.</p><p>Before long, Russia was going to burn.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>don't hold me accountable for anything that happens. it was my hands, not me. they're evil little ferrets (reading Fahrenheit 451 gave me too much power)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Chapter 19</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dimitri woke suddenly, feeling that something was wrong. He sat up, looking at Anya who was still asleep beside him, then looking across the room.</p><p>Gleb was gone.</p><p>Dimitri didn’t panic. <em>He could just be in the bathroom</em>, he reasoned.</p><p>Then Dimitri saw. Gleb’s coat wasn't by the door either.</p><p>He had left the room.</p><p>Dimitri climbed out of bed and went over to the door. He opened it and looked out into the hall, seeing it completely empty.</p><p>Wherever Gleb had gone, he was well on his way by now.</p><p>Dimitri closed the door and turned around to see Anya sitting up in bed and rubbing her eyes.</p><p>"Dimitri? What's wrong?" she asked through a yawn.</p><p>"Gleb's gone."</p><p>Anya seemed to freeze for a moment before she pulled herself out of bed and walked to him.</p><p>"Gone? Where would he go?"</p><p>"I don't know," Dimitri answered. "His coat is gone and he's nowhere to be seen. He must have left while we were asleep."</p><p>"Why would he do that?" Anya asked, sounding to be mostly to herself.</p><p>Dimitri ran his hands through his hair. He was stressing about this far more than he could have ever expected.</p><p>"Look," Anya exclaimed, crossing the room to the table. "He left a note."</p><p>She opened the envelope and removed what was inside, letting out a gasp as she did so.</p><p>"What is it?" Dimitri asked, going over to her.</p><p>Anya turned around and held up what was in her hand.</p><p>Papers. Exit papers.</p><p>Gleb wanted them to leave.</p><p>She handed them to Dimitri, who looked them over.</p><p>"They're perfect," he breathed. "How did he get them?"</p><p>"I don't know," said Anya, u pulling out another paper. "There's a letter."</p><p>Dimitri looked over her shoulder, reading the letter in her hand.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>I thank you for all you have done for me, but I regret to say that I can no longer stay with you. I am causing you danger by forcing you to stay. Take these papers and take the train to Poland that leaves at 10. I will not be coming with you.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I wish you well on your travels.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>-Gleb Vaganov</em>
</p><p> </p><p>"He wouldn't," Anya said in disbelief.</p><p>"He did," said I Dimitri. "Look, he even got us tickets." </p><p>"Why would he do something like this?" It doesn't make any sense."</p><p>"Maybe... maybe..." He didn't know. he couldn't figure out why Gleb would do such a thing.</p><p>"Well we aren't going, right? We're not leaving him behind."</p><p>Dimitri felt conflicted. On one hand, this might be their only chance to get out of Russia. They were in danger here, and it wouldn't be smart to stay any longer.</p><p>On the other hand, they couldn't leave Gleb behind. Not after everything he'd done for them. It wouldn't be right.</p><p>But Dimitri didn't know.</p><p>"In any case," he said at last, "we should pack up. We'll see if we can somehow find him out there and convince him to come with us."</p><p>"He doesn't have papers," Anya reminded him. "Even if we find him, we wouldn't be able to take him with us. We'd still be stuck here."</p><p>She was right. Either the two of them left today, or none of them did.</p><p>As hard as it had been a minute ago, it got a whole lot harder now.</p><p>Anya seemed set with staying and not leaving Gleb behind, and part of Dimitri agreed with her, but the other part was worried for her.</p><p>They'd stayed here long enough, possibly too long, and Dimitri was worried about what might happen were they to stay longer.</p><p>Dimitri couldn't lose her. He found himself thinking the same thing regarding Gleb.</p><p>That was new.</p><p>But even if it was new, Dimitri couldn't deny it. He couldn't lose Anya or Gleb.</p><p>They had to stay and find a way to get all three of them out of Russia. For good.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>i was gonna say something here like "we're getting close to the end!" but then i realized just how much i dragged it on. how about instead I'll say "we're getting close to the climax!"</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Chapter 20</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>this chapter is much shorter than i wanted it to be, but I promise the next one is a lot longer!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gleb watched from afar as the morning train to Poland pulled out of the station. He hadn't arrived early enough to see everyone board the train, but he knew that Anya and Dimitri were smart. Staying when they had the chance to leave was stupid, and they weren't stupid. They would take this chance he gave them.</p><p>And then they'd be safe.</p><p>That was all that mattered.</p><p>He watched the train disappear past the horizon before turning away.</p><p>He'd wait until nightfall, then he'd strike. He'd keep his vow. His vow to make those who had wronged him pay. He'd make all of Russia pay.</p><p>Tonight.</p><p>He just had to wait until then.</p><p>Gleb watched the sun creep slowly across the sky as he worked out his plan. It was simple, in theory, and rather easy to put into practice.</p><p>It would cost him, though. Possibly his life, if he were caught.</p><p>Though at this point, that wasn't too unappealing. He might just let himself get caught. That would be fun.</p><p>Everything hurt right now, after saying goodbye without really saying goodbye. It hurt, but it was the only way. He loved them both, which was why he had to make them leave.</p><p>Now that they were gone, off to Poland and who knows where after that. All Gleb had left to do was keep his vow. After that, he had no purpose. He'd be finished.</p><p>Finally.</p><p>Eventually, the sun set below the horizon. Gleb stood and begun to make preparations.</p><p>All he needed now was fire.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Chapter 21</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Anya and Dimitri had been looking for Gleb all day. She barely even noticed when the train they were supposed to be on pulled away. She was too focused on finding Gleb. They never did find him during the day.</p><p>When night fell, they still continued to search, possibly even more desperately.</p><p>It was too dark now. For all she knew, they could be walking right in front of him and they wouldn't even realize.</p><p>Then there were sudden screams and the smell of smoke. Anya turned around, her hand going to cover her mouth.</p><p>A building had gone up in flames. People were running away desperately, but Anya remained standing where she was.</p><p>Fire. Russia on fire.</p><p>She'd seen this before. In her nightmare.</p><p>Gleb. He was behind this.</p><p>Without a second thought, Anya took off running towards the burning building. She heard Dimitri call her name, but she kept on running. She had to, or else she'd lose him. She had to find Gleb before it was too late.</p><p>She only stopped running when she was directly in front of the building.</p><p>The building on fire was the very one that Gleb had once worked in. The very one that had thrown him out into the street.</p><p>If she wasn't certain before that Gleb was behind this, it was all but confirmed now. </p><p>He'd wanted revenge, and now he was getting it. No wonder he had wanted them to leave. He didn't want them to see this.</p><p>Anya felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked behind her, seeing Dimitri there.</p><p>"Anya we have to go," he insisted, his grip on her shoulder tightening as he tried to get her away.</p><p>She shook her head. "He's in there, Dimitri. I know he is."</p><p>"Then it's too late already! We have to go!"</p><p>She pulled herself out of his grip and ran into the burning building.</p><p>"Anya!" he yelled after her.</p><p>She kept going in. The smoke was beginning to blind her and make her cough, but she kept pushing through. Her skirt caught on fire, but she put it out and kept going.</p><p>She kept going all the way until she broke through two large doors and came into the room that had previously been Gleb's office. She was doubled over, coughing, but quickly enough managed to stand up straight.</p><p>Gleb was in the room. He turned to face her. A lit torch was in his hand, proof that she didn't need that this was his fault. His expression was possibly even more fiery than the building around them.</p><p>She found out quickly that Dimitri had followed her in. He came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders when he came in.</p><p>Gleb's expression flickered to one of fear when he saw them.</p><p>"You aren't supposed to be here," he whispered.</p><p>"Stop this!" Anya cried, turning into another coughing fit. She knew he couldn't put out the fires he'd started, but if he stopped and thought about what he was doing, he'd stop it before it could get worse. She knew he would, if he would only think.</p><p>"It's too late!" he yelled back. "It's been done! And all of Russia will burn!"</p><p>The original fire in his eyes returned with those words.</p><p>"You're better than this!" Dimitri shouted. "Come with us and leave this behind!"</p><p>"Can't you see it's too late? I can't back out now! Can't you see? Russia will burn, and I will burn with it!"</p><p>"Just put the torch down and come with us," Anya pleaded.</p><p>"And we can leave," Dimitri added. "All of us. We can leave this behind."</p><p>Gleb looked at them, then at the torch, then back to them.</p><p>He threw the torch down to the floor then ran to them. Anya turned to start heading back, but Gleb took her hand and let her back further into the room.</p><p>"There's," he coughed, "a back exit, just through here."</p><p>The smoke was so thick that they couldn't see in front of them. All Anya could rely on was Gleb's hand leading her in what she hoped was the right direction.</p><p>She tripped somewhere along the way, falling face-first into something... surprisingly cold. She looked up, trying to see through the smoke. She heard Gleb's voice whisper to her, "We're out, but we have to keep moving, come on, get up Anya." He tugged gently on her hand as she tried to force herself to stand. She managed to stand back up, then Gleb kept pulling her along. She held on tightly to both Gleb's and Dimitri's hands.</p><p>She wasn't sure how long it was until they finally stopped. She only felt her body collapse beneath her, but she still didn't let go of either of their hands. She couldn't, not yet. Not ever.</p><p>She'd get to killing Gleb herself because of how stupid he was later, for now, she was just happy he was alive.</p><p>They all were.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>yeah i don't actually know how a lot of things like burns and that sort of stuff works and i didn't feel like doing a crap ton of research so it's probably incorrect. sorry in advance.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Chapter 22</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>so again, i didn't feel like doing a crap ton of research, so basically anything that happens at all this point forward (or at any point tbh) is likely incorrect</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Almost immediately after they got to safety, all the three of them collapsed to the ground. Anya passed out a moment later. Dimitri breathed in deeply, trying to breathe in the clean air (or at least clean</span>
  <span>-</span>
  <span>er air) after breathing </span>
  <span>almost </span>
  <span>nothing but smoke.</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He still held on to Anya's hand even after she passed out.</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>"You know," Gleb said through deep breaths</span>
  <span>, his voice raspy</span>
  <span>, "going into a burning building was about the stupidest thing you could have done."</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Dimitri smiled. "The only stupid thing we've done is rescuing you." </span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>There was no noise for a moment besides that of their deep breathing and distant sounds from the city.</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Thank you, Dimitri. And... I'm sorry." </span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Don't try to push us away again." </span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>"I never meant to in the first place. I saw no other option. I was blinded by my rage... and..."</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>"And what?" Dimitri prompted. </span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>"And... my love." </span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Dimitri went quiet. He sat up to get a better look at Gleb.</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>"You mean, for Anya?"</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Yes... and no."  Gleb then sat up, an expression of half-fear half-hopefulness on his face.</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Gleb, I..." he stopped. He didn't know what he was saying. He didn't know what he was feeling. "I think... I think I feel the same for you." </span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Gleb's expression turned to one of surprise. "You... you do?" </span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Dimitri shrugged. "I'd never really thought about it until now, but I think, yeah, I do."</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>"I... I need to lie down," Gleb said, his free hand going to his head.</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>"But you just were!" Dimitri laughed.</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>"That was before, this is after."</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Dimitri nodded. "Rest. We'll figure everything out later."</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>It wasn't long before Gleb was passed out beside Anya, Dimitri sitting up and watching over them. He considered himself lucky. For some reason, he hadn't gotten as burned or breathed in as much so smoke as the other two. One would think that Anya would have fared better than he would since she was considerably closer to the floor, but Dimitri was the one who'd fared the best of the three.</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>That didn't mean he was 'fine' though. Because he certainly was not.  His throat hurt and by the look of it, one of his shoulders had been burned pretty bad. He hadn't actually started to feel it yet. But he knew it would start to hurt anytime soon.</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He laid back down beside Anya but remained awake.  He was so relieved they all were alive, that was a start at least. They'd have to see about 'okay.' It was incredibly possible that one or more of them could be seriously injured, more than minor burns, injured enough that it would call for expert medical help, but they all knew that it would be too dangerous. </span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He just had to pray that they'd all be well enough to not need a doctor.</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Both Anya and Gleb obviously had some knowledge of medicine, Dimitri, unfortunately, did not.</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>It was a wonder he'd survived this long.</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Part of him wondered just how much longer he would survive, the rest of him was content to spend it, however long, with the two people who lie asleep beside him.</span>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Eventually, he faded off into sleep.</span>
  
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>yay for them actually having braincells and talking to each other!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. Chapter 23</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>once again, i'm lazy, so don't expect anything to be accurate</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Anya woke up much later, she wasn't quite sure how long.  She was still holding on to both Gleb and Dimitri's hands, both men passed out beside her, their chests rising and slowly falling with each breath.  She smiled slightly at them both. Her heart swelled with more love than she thought would be possible. ever be possible.</p><p>After just a few seconds, she felt a stinging pain in her leg. She sat up, slipping her hands out of Dimitri and Gleb's hands, and looked at her leg. She sucked in a breath seeing at seeing the gross burn mark on her leg. She must have gotten burned when her skirt caught fire.</p><p>Quite a lot of her skirt had been burned away. Her throat was quite sore and breathing hurt, but she was incredibly thankful to be alive. She was incredibly thankful for the soft rise and fall of Dimitri and Gleb's chests because it showed that they were still breathing, they were still alive.</p><p>Anya tried to stand up but didn't get far. She couldn't put any weight on her leg. She lied back down between them. Her heart pounded from the attempt of trying to stand, so she took deep breaths despite the pain to slow her heart rate.</p><p>She lay there between them for a long time, breathing deeply, until she heard the two of them one of them move beside her. Dimitri woke first, sitting up and looking over at her, Gleb following soon after.</p><p>"Morning," Dimitri said, as she stood. He sucked in a hissing breath.</p><p>"What's wrong?" Anya and Gleb said at once.</p><p>Dimitri showed them his shoulder, which looked just as bad as Anya's leg.</p><p>"We're going to need medicines and bandages," Gleb decided, his voice raspy, even more so than Dimitri and Anya. He stood up so that Anya was the only one that was still sitting.</p><p>"What did you two do with your luggage?" he asked.</p><p>"It should still be back at the room," Anya answered.</p><p>"Are we still able to go back?" Dimitri asked.</p><p>"We should be," said Anya.  "I don't see why we can't."</p><p>"Anya, are you alright?" Gleb asked, crouching down.</p><p>"Not exactly. She lifted up the remains of her skirt and showed the burn on her leg.</p><p>"Can you stand?" Dimitri asked. She shook her head.</p><p>"I've tried already. It's not going to work."</p><p>"I can carry you," Dimitri offered.</p><p>She shook her head again. "I'm not going to let you. Not with your arm like that."</p><p>"Then I will," said Gleb.</p><p>"No one is going to carry me!" she exclaimed. "I'll be fine, I just need a crutch or something."</p><p>Gleb shook his head. "A crutch isn't going to do any good. You need medicines, you both do. I'll go back to the room and bring them back."</p><p>"You're not going alone," Dimitri decided.</p><p>"You need to stay with Anya."</p><p>"I don't need anyone to stay with me."</p><p>"I can make it alone."</p><p>"We haven't even looked over you yet," Anya reminded him.</p><p>"I'm fine," Gleb insisted.</p><p>"You were in there far longer than either of us. You can't have gotten out unscathed," Dimitri reminded him.</p><p>Gleb sighed and turned his back to them. His clothes were scorched and gone in some spaces, but it was his actual back that made Anya sick. It was a far worse burn than hers or Dimitri's. Still something that could be treated, hopefully,</p><p>What made Anya worry more was when he coughed again, and when he turned around, there was blood on his hand.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Chapter 24</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'm gonna stop saying it after this, but this is not necessarily accurate! I am lazy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gleb hadn't expected that, of anything. His chest ached, and his back burned but didn't mean he wasn't able to still work.</p><p>"Sit down," Anya ordered him, worry in both her voice and her eyes. "Come here." Gleb obediently did so. She felt his forehead and looked back at Dimitri. "Can you handle getting medicines and bandages?"</p><p>He nodded.</p><p>"Go," she told him. Dimitri ran off then Anya turned back to Gleb. "I fear we may need to go to a real doctor," she told him sadly.</p><p>Gleb shook his head, trying to stop another coughing fit. "We can't do that, Anya you know we can't."</p><p>"I know, but I don't know how much I can do to help you. I don't know how to treat things like this."</p><p>"I'll, be, fine," he insisted, but the effect of his words seemed to be none (or even opposite from what he intended) since between each word he coughed up more blood.</p><p>He could tell by now that Anya was panicking.</p><p>"We need a doctor, Gleb, and we need one fast."</p><p>"Then we have to go to one out of Russia."</p><p>Anya shook her head. "No, I'm not going to risk waiting that long."</p><p>"Anya, if we go to a doctor here, they could recognize s us."</p><p>"Or they couldn't. If we don't find a doctor soon, you might die. I know which thing I'd prefer to risk."</p><p>"Anya, I won't let you risk yourself for this."</p><p>"And I won't let you sacrifice yourself for me. It's decided, Gleb. Once Dimitri returns, I'm going to find a way to get you to a doctor."</p><p>Gleb knew that at this point that trying to fight her was no use. She'd won.</p><p>When Dimitri returned, Anya told him of the decision she'd made. Unfortunately, he agreed with her.</p><p>"Only one problem," said Dimitri.</p><p>"One problem?" said Gleb. "I can count more than that."</p><p>Dimitri rolled his eyes. "How do we get there? Anya, you stand, let alone walk, and you won't let either of us carry you."</p><p>"Oh, right," she looked back down at her lap for a moment as she tried to come up with a solution. "I think I could, just let me try with a crutch or something. It might work, for just a little while."</p><p>They did try. Anya managed to stand with the help of a tree branch they'd found h nearby that was just about the right height, then the three of them started out, each desperately praying that this would go well.</p><p>They all had a lot riding on it.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>if you noticed the change in chapter count it is simply because I can't count!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. Chapter 25</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dimitri tried to ignore the pain in his shoulder as the three of them entered into town again in search of a hospital.</p><p>You'd think he'd know where one was, having grown up here, but Dimitri actually had no idea where to find a hospital. He'd be never been allowed there. Hospitals were for people who had money enough and were "worth keeping alive." At least, that's what he'd grown up knowing.</p><p>Now, he had the money, but what he didn't have was the courage.</p><p>This was the best idea, and possibly the only one that could lead to their survival, but it could just as easily lead to all of their deaths.</p><p>He needed this to go right. For so many reasons.</p><p>They manage somehow managed to find a hospital, and they entered in, each fearing as they did so.</p><p>They were separated almost immediately, and the rest was a blur to Dimitri. His brain couldn't comprehend what was going on around him, only that he was no longer with Anya and Gleb.</p><p>He felt a sharp pain in his shoulder, crying out each time it happened, which was repeatedly.</p><p>Then it stopped. He still felt a dull pain in his shoulder, but it was much more muted.</p><p>He still couldn't quite see or understand anything else that was happening.</p><p>Not until an und undetermined, but certainly long, amount of time later.</p><p>He opened his eyes to a white room.</p><p>This felt wrong. Everything about it did.</p><p>Dimitri sat up, finding his wounded arm to be bandaged up and in a sling.</p><p>There was too much light in this room. Far too much.</p><p>He found quickly that there was someone in the room with him. Someone he would never have thought he'd see again. Especially not here.</p><p>Vladimir Popov.</p><p>Dimitri couldn't help but smile.</p><p>"What are you doing here, Vlad?"</p><p>"I could ask you the same thing, Dimitri," the man replied quickly as if he'd rehearsed the answer, which, knowing Vlad, could be likely.</p><p>"You'd never come back to Russia," Dimitri continued.</p><p>"I didn't."</p><p>"Huh?"</p><p>"I never did go back to Russia. I'm not stupid, though it seems you might be."</p><p>Dimitri rolled his eyes. Of course he had to deal with this only moments have after gaining consciousness.</p><p>"Then why are you here?"</p><p>"I think the better question is 'where are we?'"</p><p>"Fine then. Where are we, if not Russia?"</p><p>Vlad smiled. "Where else?" He walked over to another part of the room and drew open white curtains.</p><p>Great. Now there was even more light.</p><p>Dimitri sat up higher to see out of the window.</p><p>"Paris?"</p><p>Vlad nodded. "You were brought out here for better care."</p><p>"All of us?"</p><p>Vlad didn't answer at first. Dimitri imagined the worse.</p><p>Then Vlad nodded and Dimitri felt as if he could strangle the man because of that scare.</p><p>"So where's Anya and Gleb?"</p><p>"You know, I never would have expected Gleb Vaganov to be one of the first people you ask about."</p><p>"Shut up. Where are they?"</p><p>"Anya's been up for quite a while," Vlad answered. "Gleb has still yet to wake. You were all in quite bad shape when you arrived, him certainly the worst." </p><p>"But he's going to be okay, right? He's going to live?"</p><p>"It isn't certain yet, but it is likely. From what I understand, it had taken much longer, to get him here, possibly not.”</p><p>Dimitri got out of the bed and went over to Vlad, giving the older man a one-armed hug, because that was about all he could manage at the moment. "I've missed you, Vlad."</p><p>"I missed you too, Dimitri. But I must say, if this is what it took to see you again, I think it's best to stay away."</p><p>Dimitri laughed. "It won't happen again."</p><p>"You never know, with people like you."</p><p>Dimitri looked towards the door then back to Vlad. The man nodded as if telling him to go on. Dimitri opened the door and stepped outside.</p><p>The hall was much too fancy for Dimitri's tastes, but he didn't care at the moment. First, he had to find Anya, since she was awake, and then he'd have to find Gleb's room. </p><p>They were the two things that mattered most to Dimitri, and that would never change as long as he lived.</p><p>Dimitri walked through the halls, looking around for Anya, but not entirely sure where she could be.</p><p>He stopped in front of a balcony that overlooked Paris. There was someone standing there, and Dimitri could tell immediately that it was her.</p><p>He strolled up beside her, leaning on the balcony railing when he came to it.</p><p>"Grand Duchess," he greeted playfully, bowing his head slightly in her direction.</p><p>Anya turned to look at him, smiling. "Dimitri. I would run over and kiss you right now if I could." She lifted up her skirt to show him her leg, which was wrapped in bandages. She was also completely barefoot.</p><p>"It this skirt just to hide it?" Dimitri asked as she put the skirt back down.</p><p>"Mostly," she replied.</p><p>"So how'd you get up here?"</p><p>"I had someone help, and they'll probably be back before too long."</p><p>"Then we'd better get started before they do. He moved closer to Anya and laid his free hand on the side of her face. The kiss was over quickly, as they were still recovering and quite out of breath, but they stayed holding each other for a long time after.</p><p>"I... have something I need to tell you," Dimitri confessed after a moment. About Gleb."</p><p>"What is it?"</p><p>"We talked, after the fire, when you were asleep, and I realized something... that... that I think I love him."</p><p>"You do?" Anya asked.</p><p>Dimitri nodded and took a step backward. "I do."</p><p>Anya didn't react for a moment, then she burst out laughing. "Thank goodness! This  makes it much easier for me to confess the very same thing to you!"</p><p>"Really?"</p><p>Anya nodded and laughed. "I've been worrying about it for far too long, trying to figure out how to tell you, and you just go ahead and do it first like it's nothing?" She playfully punched him in the free arm.</p><p>"You've got to be fast to beat me," Dimitri laughed.</p><p>"Next time I will be."</p><p>"Wait, next time? What do you mean by next time?"</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>yay! safety! they're okay!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0026"><h2>26. Chapter 26</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>ha sorry this is coming a bit later than usual i forgot how days work</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Anya had been awake for about a day and a half before Dimitri had woken up. She found herself much more relaxed than she could have ever expected, especially with both of the people she loved still passed out. Maybe it was something about being in Paris again, with her Nana and Vlad and Lily, and having the surety that both Dimitri and Gleb would be fine.</p><p>At least, she desperately hoped.</p><p>She'd checked in on them both all throughout the days before either woke, talking to doctors and everyone else she could to see how they were doing.</p><p>When Dimitri had found her, it was one of the few moments she wasn't in either his or Gleb's room.</p><p>Knowing that Dimitri would be okay made everything better, but she was still worried about Gleb. He was injured more than either her or Dimitri.</p><p>The doctors said he should live, but he may not be the same. He may not ever breathe normally again. His back would always be scarred.</p><p>At least Anya knew that she would be able to still walk and that Dimitri's arm would heal. She'd heard stories of worse burns healing, from the doctors themselves.</p><p>But Gleb...</p><p>Gleb may not.</p><p>She couldn't handle that thought. That possibility.</p><p>And when Dimitri woke and told confessed to her the very thing she wanted to confess to him, it made everything better, and harder at the same time.</p><p>They both loved him. And now they needed him back.</p><p>Anya and Dimitri walked—through immense difficulty—to Gleb's room. They sat down in the chairs beside his bed, watching him, hoping and praying that he would wake and that he would be okay.</p><p>It didn't happen quickly. It took another couple of days for anything to happen.</p><p>When it did happen, which was days later, both Anya and Dimitri were in his room, waiting for him. </p><p>Gleb opened his eyes, slowly adjusting to the light. His face broke into a smile when he saw them.</p><p>Anya and Dimitri went to either side of his bed, each taking one of Gleb's hands.</p><p>Anya felt tears slide down her face. "You're safe, Gleb," she whispered. "We all are."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0027"><h2>27. Chapter 27</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Breathing still hurt, Gleb learned rather quickly. His back ached, which was to be expected after what had happened.</p><p>Anya and Dimitri filled him in on what happened since the hospital in Russia. They were in Paris. They seemed to expect that knowing that would make him relax, but it did the opposite. Paris wasn't a good place for him. He didn't belong here. Not like they did.</p><p>The longer they stayed in Paris, though, the more Gleb could feel himself being accepted.</p><p>Vlad was the first to warm up to him, Lily soon after, but even after they'd been in Paris for weeks, the Dowager Empress never once said a word to him.</p><p>He didn't exactly blame her. It was because of his father that her entire family save for Anya had been killed. And then he'd very nearly killed her too...</p><p>He... tried not to think about that, but it was becoming harder and harder to avoid it.</p><p>Part of Gleb wanted to get away from Paris, but he didn't want to force Anya to leave before she was ready, or Dimitri for that matter.</p><p>Eventually, they would, since they couldn't stay here forever, but for now, he just had to wait. He had to sacrifice a bit of his comfort for their happiness. It was worth it. Seeing Anya and Dimitri happy like they were made every uncomfortable moment well worth it. </p><p>Somehow, Gleb wasn't completely sure how, Gleb found himself alone with the Dowager Empress. His heart was pounding.</p><p>"My granddaughter tries to tell me you are not the man you once were," she eventually began. "How do I know that is true?"</p><p>Gleb looked down at his lap. "I love your granddaughter," he eventually whispered. "I don't know how else to convince you."</p><p>She looked at him.</p><p>"And Dimitri?"</p><p>He nodded. "I love both of them."</p><p>"That is indeed strange."</p><p>Gleb looked up and over to her—she had looked back away from him.</p><p>"Strange?" he asked. "Strange, that I love them?" </p><p>She nodded. “It is something that I have never seen before. I never thought I would see."</p><p>"It sounds like you intend it as a bad thing."</p><p>She looked back at him. "You have yet to prove to be me that it is a good thing."</p><p>She stood up and began to leave the room.</p><p>Gleb stood up and ran after her.</p><p>"With all due respect, I don't believe it's up to you to decide this."</p><p>The Dowager Empress turned a back around. Gleb towered over her, but he still felt like he was the more likely of the two to back down.</p><p>"It is my choice to decide who my granddaughter ruins herself by associating with and whether I should permit her."</p><p>"It is not up to you to make choices for Anya. You talk about caring about her, but you don't act as if you do. If you truly cared about her, you would let her choose for herself."</p><p>"I will not let her be killed because you turn out to be just like your father." She turned away again, resuming her walk away.</p><p>"I used to think I was!" Gleb yelled. "I used to want to be, but then I met Anya. She made me realize that I am not my father's son and that I never wish to be!" The Dowager Empress stopped walking away but did not turn around. "And then Dimitri made me realize that I am not determined by how I was raised. I am better than who I once was, and if you will not see that, fine. Just don't make it your job to undermine Anya's choices."</p><p>He stormed out before the Dowager Empress could say another word.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>we're so close to the end!!!</p>
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<a name="section0028"><h2>28. Chapter 28</h2></a>
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    <p>"You know, my dear," the Dowager Empress said to Anya unprompted one day, "both men of yours are quite terrible at behaving themselves."</p><p>Oh dear. This was bad. "I'm sorry, Nana, I'll talk to them—”</p><p>She waved her hand. "I don't blame them for it. I'm a difficult person to impress, but I must admit, they have both impressed me."</p><p>Anya couldn't respond. All she could say was "Nana?"</p><p>"Mind you, there are other ways to impress me, most that don't require arguments. They could certainly both use a lesson in manners."</p><p>"I'll see to that." Anya stood up and started to leave.</p><p>"Frankly, so you could you, my child."</p><p>Anya turned back around to see the older woman smiling at her.</p><p>"You have no reason to change, my dear," she said as Anya came and sat beside her again. "I knew from when you were a child that you were not suited for the life you were born into."</p><p>"You did?"</p><p>She nodded. "It has always been clear to me."</p><p>Anya went back to her room that night deep in thought. She spoke to Dimitri and Gleb alone the next morning.</p><p>"I think it's time we left Paris," she told them slowly.</p><p>They both seemed surprised by her saying so.</p><p>"Are you sure, Anya?" Dimitri asked.</p><p>She nodded. "It's been good to be here, but I think we've stayed long enough. If you disagree and want to stay—"</p><p>"We thought you'd be the one to want to stay," said Gleb. "I mean, more than us."</p><p>Anya shrugged. "Part of me does, but I don't belong here, not in this life. I don't suit these fancy dresses and acting proper. I want to go back out there."</p><p>They nodded. "Where do we go?" Gleb asked as Dimitri said, "When do we leave?"</p><p>"One question at a time," Anya laughed. "We have time to plan our destination, it isn't like we're being kicked out or anything."</p><p>"Not yet anyway," Gleb mumbled. Dimitri elbowed him. "It's the truth!"</p><p>"For you, maybe."</p><p>"Very funny, Mitya."</p><p>They started to plan just where they would go travel. It took a while to decide, but by the time they did, all three of them were well prepared to go. They were all quite restless, Anya included.</p><p>That didn't make saying goodbye any easier.</p><p>It was difficult, especially since the last time, she didn't really get to do so. Not to everyone.</p><p>She hugged Vlad tightly as she said a tearful good 'goodbye.'</p><p>"Try not to kill either of them," he whispered, "but if you do, I won't blame you."</p><p>"Vlad, please," she laughed.</p><p>"You know it's the truth."</p><p>She couldn't help but laugh more as she wiped the tears off her face.</p><p>"But please, be careful, Anya. The world can be a dangerous place, you know this. Just be cautious, but don't forget to enjoy it. Got that?"</p><p>She nodded. "Thank you, Vlad."</p><p>When it came to saying goodbye to her Nana, that was just as hard. "I love you, Nana. And I'll miss you."</p><p>"Be safe, my dear, and do please try to keep those men of yours under control."</p><p>"I will, Nana."</p><p>"Now go," she told her. "Go live your life."</p><p>Anya let go and stepped back. She took hold of both Dimitri and Gleb's hands, squeezing them tightly.</p><p>"Goodbye," she said one more time, then the three of them turned away and started to leave. </p><p>Off into a new life, finally leaving the old one behind.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>...i can't believe it's finally finished. this has been a super long work (even though I was finished writing it before I started posting) and is currently my biggest work on ao3 (I can't believe is has over 700 hits!). biiiiig thank you to everyone who's been keeping up with this. love y'all &lt;3</p>
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